Canada Water and the Old Kent Road targeted for intense development

The Mayor of London is currently consulting on proposed alterations to The London Plan - including creating new "opportunity areas" in Bromley, Old Oak Common, Harrow & Wealdstone and most significantly for us, Canada Water and the Old Kent Road.

The LP is a high-level blueprint for the future of our city. It's the reason why new office developments are increasingly clustered around main rail stations and why inner London brownfield sites have been targeted for high-density development.

"Opportunity Area" designation would mean intense and accelerated development at these locations. In the case of the OKR, the Mayor envisages a minimum of 2,500 new homes and 1,000 new jobs being located here. For Canada Water it means at least another 800 new homes and a huge new King's College campus.

The OKR designation would lend further weight to the case for a Bakerloo Line extension, which is being touted around by the Mayor, but remains unfunded. For a weeping sore like the OKR to be turned in to a residential area will require something dramatic to happen, like running the Bakerloo Line east from Elephant and Castle straight down its length, before going on to New Cross, Lewisham and Ladywell or perhaps Peckham.

The Mayor is expected to trail his infrastructure strategy in the coming weeks and publish it in the Autumn. That strategy will set out what investment is required for London to grow its population to 10 million.